The Peach Keeper

All the Boy Scouts in the house went camping, which means I can enjoy some of my favorite things guilt free:

1. These pj's. My husband hates them and not just b/c they are the opposite of sexy and make me look about 30 pounds heavier, but because touching fleece creeps him out. I however thing if we all wore more fleece jammies and less skinny jeans, the world would be a happier place.

2. Eating Chocolate covered pretzels.
  a. microwave chocolate chips for 30 seconds. stir. repeat
  b. add pretzels and stir
  c. place on wax paper and stick in the freezer for 5-10 minutes until chocolate hardens.

Crunchy, chocolate, salty perfection.

3. Staying up late reading in bed.  Since my husband goes in to work obscenely early, I can't do this very often, and I am glad that I picked the perfect mix of romance, friendship, and mystery: The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen.

The story centers around the unlikely friendship of Paxton(have) and Willa (have-not) as they try to escape who they were in high school and try to solve the mystery of the 75 year-old skeleton found buried under a large peach tree.  

Here's some quotes I loved: 

"But she now realized that he hadn't reinvented himself at all. He'd become himself."


“Happiness is a risk. If you're not a little scared, then you're not doing it right.”

"razor-sharp sun" (seriously great desciption-going outside w/out my sunglasses around here hurts)

“Right now everyone is drinking bad wine made of sour grapes and hysteria. Let them drink it, and let them regret it in the morning.”


"She was sure everyone wanted to talk to one another about it first, to come to some consensus about how they all felt about it.  One way or the other, Paxton knew that those who decided to stick with her would be her true friends,  The others would just be scenery"

On being "sorry" that you've drifted apart from a friendship: "But I think that's like saying I'm sorry I left the water on and flooded the house.  At some point, you could have turned it off. It's not like it had to happen."

I've never lived anywhere longer than a few years and I am not as good about holding on to friendships as tight as I should.  Relationships with people that once were fused into almost every facet of my life, now have degenerated to me "liking" their posts on facebook.  I guess I don't call them all up more because I'm lazy and don't want to intrude on their new lives.  This is stupid, b/c it would make my day if anyone called me up out of the blue. Reading this book makes me want to call them all up.

I give the book  4 out of 5 stars.

 (If you read it in bed while wearing cloud pj's and eating chocolate covered pretzels, it's a solid 5 stars)